Nkomo’s digital story “The Last Day” focuses on seeing life for the last time through weary hopeful eyes. It addresses the psychological trauma of knowing and the realization that the final moments are near. Your offspring, in that moment, may not be aware that it is your potential “last day on earth”, but it is has been often documented that many are acutely aware of when their time is near and the protagonist is definitely aware of the limited time that she has left. As you age your appreciation of simple things becomes more refined and that is something missing in youth because youthood seems eternal. Thus, they are missing the experience of appreciation for simplicity and clarity that comes with age toward the end of life.
Her life flashes before her eyes. She sees parts of a life missed in “the coolness of the dirt” that she feels on her “cheek”, and realizes that the effects of shade is part of life fading. Light and dark, good and bad, warmth and cold, it is all part of the balance of life - the Yin and the Yang. The importance of mobility (or lack thereof). A longing for family as the body declines. Thus, the body is in its decline, yet nature is in its mobility. The joy of today the sacrifice and pains of knowing life is limited. The blinking of the black and white text is representation of life changing in an instance. The words tell one woman’s story, while also telling the story of growing sick and elderly, and doing that alone. We are born alone and we die alone.
Textual Elements/Digital Specifics
The black and white flashing words. The count down! The large words that change shape.
The ancient foreign music of ancestral sounds. Connection of a cultural attention to elderly awareness and needs.
The layout of detail associated with that day
The countdown of the numbers mixed with 6 then five. The numeric mixed then the alphabetic
Visually, the reader is drawn by the multiple levels of interest, music, history, a person losing life…slowly
The nature of being outside and the possible “rats” being near by in the possible “slum” or “the field”.
The images are black and white with each flash they become more defend with the accompaniment of words.
This digital story does not allow the reader much control of the information and how they can receive it.
It jumps at you whether or not it is wanted or not.
The unfinished moment of life in the end.
Analysis/Interpretation In Nkomo’s The Last Day loneliness, aging, hope, and death are all part of one woman’s final hours. Desire for a few more precious moments, appreciation for what she has had, and the sorrow, and joy - gratefulness for the time that she has had, of last moments of life are expressed to the reader. Realizations of the “NOW” are important in this digital story. The awareness of how short life is, its relationship to/in nature, and the passing of things in its natural course becomes an important element in the final days of existence. The leaping words from screen to screen emerge as a sense of urgency for the women in question. Leaving the reader to feel the same sense of urgency and longing for the arrival of the son, or the passerby, and even possibly more time on earth. Dying alone is something that many of us find unacceptable, especially for the elderly, but is is often an inevitable thing because they [the elderly] are often forgotten or treated as afterthoughts. But as we come into this world alone, we also exist in the same way. We too fade into oblivion unfinished...
Overview
Nkomo’s digital story “The Last Day” focuses on seeing life for the last time through weary hopeful eyes. It addresses the psychological trauma of knowing and the realization that the final moments are near. Your offspring, in that moment, may not be aware that it is your potential “last day on earth”, but it is has been often documented that many are acutely aware of when their time is near and the protagonist is definitely aware of the limited time that she has left. As you age your appreciation of simple things becomes more refined and that is something missing in youth because youthood seems eternal. Thus, they are missing the experience of appreciation for simplicity and clarity that comes with age toward the end of life.
Her life flashes before her eyes. She sees parts of a life missed in “the coolness of the dirt” that she feels on her “cheek”, and realizes that the effects of shade is part of life fading. Light and dark, good and bad, warmth and cold, it is all part of the balance of life - the Yin and the Yang. The importance of mobility (or lack thereof). A longing for family as the body declines. Thus, the body is in its decline, yet nature is in its mobility. The joy of today the sacrifice and pains of knowing life is limited. The blinking of the black and white text is representation of life changing in an instance. The words tell one woman’s story, while also telling the story of growing sick and elderly, and doing that alone. We are born alone and we die alone.
Textual Elements/Digital Specifics
Analysis/Interpretation
In Nkomo’s The Last Day loneliness, aging, hope, and death are all part of one woman’s final hours. Desire for a few more precious moments, appreciation for what she has had, and the sorrow, and joy - gratefulness for the time that she has had, of last moments of life are expressed to the reader. Realizations of the “NOW” are important in this digital story. The awareness of how short life is, its relationship to/in nature, and the passing of things in its natural course becomes an important element in the final days of existence. The leaping words from screen to screen emerge as a sense of urgency for the women in question. Leaving the reader to feel the same sense of urgency and longing for the arrival of the son, or the passerby, and even possibly more time on earth. Dying alone is something that many of us find unacceptable, especially for the elderly, but is is often an inevitable thing because they [the elderly] are often forgotten or treated as afterthoughts. But as we come into this world alone, we also exist in the same way. We too fade into oblivion unfinished...